Costa Rica, here we come! (travel day & Peace Lodge)

We have been planning a trip to Costa Rica for the longest, it seems. It might have been in the works for a year and a half maybe. Long time. We were so excited to finally go! The kids were pretty excited as well, especially since we'd been talking it up for so long.

We drove down to Dallas on Monday... we were totally relaxed about getting down there- we really just needed to eat there & then sleep. Unfortunately we got caught up in Dallas rush hour traffic combined with some crazy construction so our dinner ended up being a bit late and therefore we got to bed a bit late. This was not so good because we had to be up at about 5am the next morning to get to the airport in time to catch our 855am flight. (I think the kids were asleep around 1030p!! They need 12 hrs of sleep!!). So needless to say, we were quite tired. The kids were troopers though and did really pretty well.

Of course we get to the airport and it is the hurry up so you can wait kind of deal... show up 2 hrs early so you can sit and spend money in the airport. ;o) 

Here are Isabella and Jackson passing time, watching movies on their tvs with their new headsets. 

And here is Jackson... on our first flight, sleeping. He was eating his snack and before too long he couldn't keep from just passing out. Of course then I am trying to wedge my arm under his head so he won't do the head bob so much and hopefully catch up on some missed sleep. We flew from Dallas to Miami... then to Costa Rica. That was a pretty long day!! 

When we landed in Costa Rica it was mid afternoon. But then we had to go to the rental car place, do all the paperwork (which seemed to take forever!), and then get the car. So we drove out of San José (the capitol) while it was light out but arrived at our hotel after dark. Due to Costa Rica's location, they have an early sunrise (a little after 5am) and an early sunset (a little before 6pm!!). So Mike was driving on some pretty crazy roads up to our first hotel in the dark. As a general rule, their roads are narrow, full of potholes (or if they are gravel they have HUGE rocks mixed in with the gravel), and very curvy as they wind around the different elevations. Add to that people walking on the sides of the roads and drivers that don't exactly follow many rules of the road and it can get pretty intense. Thankfully our GPS got us to the hotel without any problems and Mike navigated the roads well. Our first hotel was about an hour from the capitol. We stayed at the Peace Lodge and La Paz Waterfall Gardens in Vara Blanca.

I got us checked in and we freshened up in our hotel room before dinner. We couldn't see much of the property in the dark but it seemed immense. And our hotel room was a knock out! The kids were so excited. (Pictures below.) Dinner was lovely (although a bit on the spendy side due to this being a resort) and the kids enjoyed the fire. The temps were a bit cool due to the higher elevation, but lovely (in the 60s at night, 80s on a sunny day).

After dinner we headed back to the room and hopped into the hot tub on our balcony. A fun way to bathe, have fun as a family, and relax after a long day of traveling. Disregard my black eyes, that is only my mascara running. :-O

The following day we actually got to see our surroundings and how beautiful everything was!! We had a lovely breakfast of fruit, eggs, bread, and gallo pinto (their traditional black beans and rice that they eat at breakfast which is quite good... gallo pinto means spotted rooster for the appearance of the black beans & white rice). It was actually buffet style breakfast with an omelet station along with many more dishes, but I list the things I ate. :)

After breakfast we set out do walk the hotel's waterfall gardens. (We were hiking, for the kids sake, but really it was just a short walk... a little over 2 miles. The kids thought they needed to be carried by the end of it though! Ha!) The waterfalls were gorgeous, the greenery was amazing, and the temperature was perfect. It actually got a bit cool by one waterfall where you were enveloped in this thick mist. I believe the high elevation in the bottom picture is the Poas Volcano... the website says it can be seen from the dinning area and this picture was taken at breakfast. (All our meals in Costa Rica were eaten outside, sometimes in a covered area w/ no walls, sometimes just completely outside. It was very nice to eat and enjoy all the stunning views although Mike would beg to differ on some of the hotter locations.)

I didn't even realize, until now, that my eyes were closed on this one! :) Bella's might even be closed too.

At the end of the walk (I mean hike) you can take the bus back to the lodge. My first thought was- ah, we can probably walk back, it's not that long of a walk! But upon hear my kids whining at the end of the hike, I knew we'd be taking the bus. ;o) Poor Jackson & his short legs, he just wears out quickly.

The collage below is kind of a mixed bag. The middle picture, with the animals, we saw at the end of the waterfall hike. They are coati mundis. Kind of raccoon like, but not. There was also a couple raccoons nearby and one of the raccoons was actually hissing every time one of the coatis came near. Enemies? Or just a grumpy raccoon? Not sure.

The picture of me and the kids in the left corner is at a coffee plantation, Doka Estate, which is actually where Starbucks gets some of their Costa Rican coffee. It is a small family owned plantation (a couple generations family owned). Costa Rica only contributes about 4% of the coffee beans in the coffee industry, but from what we drank on our trip, it is pretty good coffee! We ate lunch at the plantation (a buffet of traditional foods including plantains cooked similarly to how we do sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving. Well, minus the marshmallows. Also a yummy coconut dessert that tasted very similarly to an mounds bar... had to sing that little song to remember the name of the candy bar! "Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't! Almond Joy's got nuts, Mounds don't." Haha.). We then took the coffee tour where we learned about how they grow, harvest, and process coffee. Very interesting stuff! If only the kids were half as interested as we were. :) Anyway, back to the picture... behind us are bananas which you can also see in the picture below that one.

On the way back I fascinated Mike with my Spanish speaking ability in that I was able to find the ATM by reading the signs. But then he proceeded to critique my abilities the rest of the trip when I couldn't come up with every single translation to every Spanish word he asked me. It's not like you can really cover the whole language in 2 semesters a year for 1 hour a week, for the past 1.5 years. We're really focusing on grammar anyway. Anyway, I digress... I did know the important things in Spanish- like ATM (which isn't ATM, btw).

Now on to the hotel. It was so very lovely! We had our own door plate with our name on it. We had a specific butterfly that we had to memorize in order to get our meal bills charged to our room (this was a struggle but luckily for us it was on our door key). We had our own fireplace (that we didn't use), a shower that was a waterfall (very interesting to shower under) and another waterfall next to the bath tub. The light fixture in the bathroom was amazing (the iron leaf fixture in the far right picture), the sinks were beautifully painted, and there was even stained glass in a little window between the main room and the bathroom. I've already mentioned the jacuzzi on the porch and there was also a hammock as well. Isabella was dying to sleep in the large bed with the canopy but we managed to get them to sleep together (first time ever and so cute to see!). It was all kind of amazing. And I kind of wished we were going to stay there longer than 2 nights. :)

And here are the kids sleeping together on that first night (we put them on cushions on the floor b/c I was really worried one of them would fall off of the high bed and hit their head on the fireplace). I have no idea why her hand is on his head.

and the hammock. I wish I had gotten more time to relax in this thing!

The second night at the lodge we went on a frog safari which the kids loved (especially Jackson since he has totally been in to Diego and all the rainforest animals). They had these two rooms with lots of plants and of course frogs. We were given flashlights (and had a couple of our own) and we were shown where the frogs hang out (inside the leaves) and then we set off to find them. The first room was the poisonous frogs. But no need to be alarmed, apparently, because they are not so poisonous when they are not eating the things they eat in the wild (who knew??). The big concern would be if you had any cuts on your hands (or wherever you touched the frog). So the kids just looked at these frogs. Our tour guide did hold them for us to see (the green spotted one in the far left corner is one of them). They are so very tiny!!

The next room had bigger frogs (but not huge) and none were poisonous. The big attraction (for Jackson, anyway) was the red eyed tree frog. He knew this frog from Diego and he loves them! It was so exciting to see Jackson get to hold one! Isabella did too and she really enjoyed this safari as well. (See, it is a bit chilly- the kids are wearing their fleece jackets! But this would be the only time on the trip that we needed them.)

We also got to see their traditional ox cart at the Peace Lodge. I guess you can ride in this one?? Not sure, we just saw it there and took a picture with it. ;o) You would think they don't use these anymore (that's what I thought) but then later on our trip we saw these huge oxen pulling a cart (not an ornate painted cart, just a regular one) next to the palm (palm oil) plantation. These things are HUGE!

We swam in the hotel pool on the 2nd day after the coffee tour. It was a divided pool with an infinity edge- one side was cold and the other warm. We stuck to the warm pool- it was already an overcast day & a little cool. You can see in the picture that the humidity made things a little foggy. We learned from a gentleman using the hot tub that the pool had a working waterfall. So I got out and pushed the button and down it came. (Isabella enjoyed it!)

The last day at the lodge we went to feed the hummingbirds. They have amazingly beautiful hummingbirds in Costa Rica. I've always been a bit amazed by hummingbirds- the speed at which they beat their wings, how they flitter in and out, how you never really get a good look at them for very long. Well feeding them was so neat! They hung around long enough for you to really get a good look at them and flew close enough for you to hear and feel the fast beat of their wings. The kids were even able to be still enough (which wasn't too terribly still) to have them land on their "flower". So cool!

These purple ones were my favorite.

There were many things to see and do at this hotel. We visited all the animals in the sanctuary and went through the butterfly garden (unfortunately I didn't capture many butterfly pictures this whole trip, even though we went to many butterfly gardens!!). It was a very lovely place and the staff was all very friendly. We'd definitely like to return (and I know the kids would too!).